Backyard Bug Habitats

by Wizzie Brown

Creating a living space for insects in your yard can help increase animal diversity, help plants get pollinated, and draw in beneficial insects that can help manage pests. Fortunately, insects and their relatives have similar requirements as other animals, so you may only need to make a few slight adjustments to make your garden more bug-friendly.

Plants a.k.a. food

  • Provide pollen, nectar, and host plants (including trees and grasses) throughout spring through fall, and plan for a succession of bloom times using native plants.
  • Plant “clumps” of the same plants for maximum attraction.
  • Include a variety of colors & flower shapes.
  • Avoid modern hybrid plants (these may not have pollen, nectar, or fragrance for pollinators).
  • Include larval host plants in the landscape (be aware that insects will eat them!).
  • Ensure that plants are insecticide free.

Water

  • Create a damp salt lick for bees and butterflies. Use a drip hose or irrigation line, or place a bird bath/dish on the ground. Add soil, a bit of sea salt or wood ashes, and enough water to make the area damp.
  • Add a nectar source with a hummingbird feeder (four parts water to one part sugar). Clean feeder regularly to avoid mold.
  • Insects need resources other than nectar. Some like foodstuffs such as moist animal droppings, urine, and rotting fruits. Add overripe bananas, citrus or other fruits to a suet feeder and hang in a tree.
  • Place a sponge in a dish of lightly salted (sea salt) water to discover which insects come to investigate.

Shelter

  • Design the landscape so that plantings are layered when mature – canopy (trees), lower canopy, shrubs, grasses, herbaceous plants (herbs, vegetables, flowers).
  • Leave a little “mess” — logs, snags, twig bundles, and leaves can create nesting areas for native bees.
  • Leave some rocks and bare (unmulched) soil.
  • Add handmade or “artificial” habitats (NOTE: these should be sheltered with an east-to-southeast facing)

For more information or help with identification, contact Wizzie Brown, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service Program Specialist at 512.854.9600. Check out my blog at www.urban-ipm.blogspot.com
This work is supported by Crops Protection and Pest Management Competitive Grants Program [grant no. 2017-70006-27188 /project accession no. 1013905] from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture

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